


this

by scriboergosums



Category: Victoria (TV)
Genre: F/M, Series 2, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 09:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16616042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scriboergosums/pseuds/scriboergosums
Summary: A conversation in the quiet.





	this

“Vicky sat up on her own today,” he says.

Victoria shifts on her side of the bed and blinks away the sleep seeping in. Albert’s voice is soft and heavy, just close enough that it tickles the back of her neck.

“So quickly,” she says. “Wasn’t she born just yesterday?”

“Soon she will be receiving marriage proposals from princes all over the world,” he murmurs, scooting closer until her back is against his chest and his cold legs are tangled with her even colder ones. “You will have to fend them off before we even have breakfast.”

“Me? What about you?” She tries to turn her head but he’s holding tight now, and she can feel his grin against her skin.

“You are the strong one,” he tells her.  

Victoria smiles and pulls his hand up from her waist to kiss the back of his palm. It’s a high compliment from someone who never says what he doesn’t mean. “You exaggerate,” she teases all the same, knowing he’ll recognize the jab as one of his own.

He exhales softly, a long and tired sound, but the kind of tired that is both contented as much as it is worn out. They’re barely adults, after all, trying to juggle family and country. But it suits them just fine. She gives her own long exhale.

“How was your day?”

“It was a day,” she says. “The red box comes and goes faster than I can blink sometimes. But it becomes easier with more practice. And help,” she adds, squeezing his fingers. He hums, the rumbling in his chest seemingly surrounding her. She lets a minute pass before, “and yours?”

“What day?” he asks with a snort. “I was too busy watching your daughter to have a day.”

“ _Your_ daughter.”

“I assure you, she is yours.”

She laughs under her breath. He sounds all too pleased to spend his days with her – _their_ – daughter, so he’ll receive no sympathy from her.

The room falls into quietness, then, the only sound being the breaths shared in the small sacred space of Albert and Victoria. She can almost pretend the walls beyond this room aren’t there – she is an ordinary woman, falling asleep next to the love of her life, soaking in his love and warmth all for herself.

And then, in the softest, quietest of tones she’s ever heard from him, he asks, “are you happy?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you happy?” he repeats, just as soft, just as fragile. “With the – the baby. Me.… this.”

_This_ , he’s asking her. This life that they’ve created together. The routines and the order and the obligations. The laughs and the children ( _children already_ ) and the secret kisses. Days when they don’t see the other until they’re falling asleep, days when they’re shooting thinly veiled snipes back and forth, days when she needs him, days when she hates that she does.

And he’s asking her, this brave, beautiful boy, if she is happy with _him_ , as if she was worried she’d chosen the wrong husband in the same way she could have chosen the wrong pair of shoes, as if he hasn’t become as much a part of her as her own skin. Never mind that he’s given up so much to be by her side.

To give her _this_.

She turns over to face him, his arms now loose around her, and finds his bright eyes quickly. “So happy,” she breathes. “So incredibly happy.”

The corner of his mouth turns upward in a smile so rare, she herself hardly sees it. So she kisses it, trying to remember it, trying to remember all of this.

**Author's Note:**

> There's not enough Albert / Victoria fanfic out there, amirite?
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
